The College of Natural and Agricultural Sciences and the Stem Cell Center are very pleased to welcome Dr. Nicole zur Nieden to our campus. Dr. zur Nieden, a stem cell biologist, is joining the UCR faculty this fall and will be a participant in our growing stem cell research base. Dr. zur Nieden received her PhD from the University of Essen in Germany in 2002. She subsequently did postdoctoral work with Dr. D. E. Rancourt in Calgary Canada from 2002-2006. Since 2006 she has managed her own lab and has been a group leader of Applied Stem Cell Technology at the Fraunehofer Institute for Cell Therapy and Immunology in Leipzig Germany.

For her PhD, Dr. zur Nieden worked on developing methods for using embryonic stem cells to monitor environmental toxicants. She modified an existing validated assay, the embryonic stem cell test, which had been based on differentiation and contraction of cardiomyocytes. Dr. zur Nieden introduced the use of molecular markers to distinguish distinct endpoints of differentiation with this validated assay. During her postdoctoral training, she used embryonic stem cells as a model for bone tissue regeneration. She examined the role of B-catenin in osteogenesis and developed methods for long term culture of mouse embryonic stem cell in bioreactors. In her position at Leipzig, Dr. zur Nieden has developed projects in stem cell expansion and differentiation, signaling pathways in skeletal muscle development, and developmental osteotoxicity.